Cocktail-Making Robot 'Monsieur' Raises $2 Million

Bartenders of the world, you may soon have no job thanks to a robotic bartender named Monsieur. TechCrunch writes that the team behind the bot has now raised $2 million in seed funding. Essentially a "black box filled with booze," Monsieur can make a massive variety of cocktails. All users have to do is program a drink into the interface and the robot "mixes the drink in proper proportion and squirts it into a glass." The whole system is run on an android tablet.

Co-founder and CEO Barry Givens tells TechCrunch that the robot is "in pilot with several NBA arenas" as well as a "top hotel brand" and a large movie theatre brand with over 500 locations. Givens says that Monsieur will be in "at least 3 NBA arenas" this season, including one with nearly 110,000 seats. The team behind the robot has also placed beta units in bars and restaurants around Atlanta. As for the $2 million they just raised? The company plans on using it towards building more Monsieur bots for bars, restaurants, and for home use (for those that have $4,000 to blow).

The restaurant industry is seeing a surge in technology lately: Servers are now starting to face stiff competition at restaurants like Chili's where customers can place orders and pay their bills on tablets located at tables. Chains like Applebee's and IHOP also plan to introduce similar technology.